Afterglow
by swagsuke-kun
Summary: Sakura's late to work and the reason why is pretty obvious... / SasuSaku / Post-War Blank Period /
1. Sakura

**Note** : I've since updated and extended this little fic so it's a bit longer. Enjoy.

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"Sorry I'm late!" Sakura called out as she rushed down the familiar, florescent-lit hallway to check her schedule for the day.

She peered in Shizune's office, finding an abandoned cup of coffee and a stack of patient files on the desk. No Shizune.

The older medic had probably had to cover for Sakura's absence that morning. She felt a wave of guilt wash over her. Shizune was always working so hard, and now she was adding onto that burden.

Sakura should offer to work late. Maybe she could help out with some of the paperwork that weekend, too.

"Oh, hey there, Forehead!" Ino greeted, spotting her on the way to her next appointment. "Weren't you scheduled to come in at 7? Because it's 9:15 now."

"Ah, yeah, something came up! It won't happen again," Sakura replied, anxiously looking down at the clock on her phone. She internally cringed at all those times she scolded Naruto and Kakashi for showing up late when she was now no better herself.

"Ohh, was that something Sasuke's dick?"

Well, shit.

"What?" Sakura choked.

"You're flushed from head to toe and practically glowing. Obviously it's from all that sweet, sweet Uchiha love you've been getting lately." The blonde teased, nudging her friend in the side with an elbow.

"No! I just overslept!" Sakura quickly refuted, her face growing hot.

"Uh huh. Well, congrats on that. It must have been a great sleep," Ino said with a wink as she sauntered off around the corner.

Sakura sighed and glanced over at her reflection in the window beside her.

"Is it really that obvious..?"

She quickly straightened out her hair and tried taking deep breaths in an attempt to regain some composure.

Ino was just teasing her. There's no way anyone else would notice anything out of the ordinary. Plenty of people overslept from time to time.

Making her way to the first patient's room, she popped her head into Tsunade's office to let her know she had arrived.

"Hey! Sorry, I overslept! It won't happen again." Sakura called out at the Sannin, who was halfway through both reading a hospital report and drinking a glass of something that was definitely not water.

"Gotcha," Tsunade glanced up at her with a wink. "I had Shizune fill in for you, so no worries. I can see the Uchiha brat made good use of those two extra hours with you."

Again? Seriously?

"IT'S NOT LIKE THAT, OKAY?" Sakura squealed, face now boasting a shade of pink to rival her hair. "I HAVE TO GET GOING. A PATIENT IS WAITING ON ME. I'LL TALK TO YOU LATER."

The young medic-nin darted out of the office and back into the hallway in a fluster.

Continuing down the hallway, she thought back to the sleepy mess of dark hair and soft lips that she left behind at the apartment that morning, and hoped that at least Sasuke would be able to enjoy his morning in peace.


	2. Sasuke

Note: As requested, Sasuke's PoV...

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"It took you long enough to get here, teme!" Naruto shouted the second Sasuke stepped through the door to the Hokage's office. "I sent out the messenger hawk for you like a century ago!"

"Hn." The dark-haired Uchiha looked up at the clock on the wall. It was 9:37.

"Kakashi-sensei and I have been waiting FOREVER for you to get here!"

"Nn," the Uchiha grunted non-commitally, still feeling the warm haze of blissful sluggishness from what had transpired earlier that morning.

"We're going to go get Ichiraku together in celebration of my official unofficial start of training to become the 7th Hokage!" Naruto exclaimed, pumping a fist in the air excitedly.

"I'm letting him help out with some paperwork and administrative stuff," Kakashi clarified.

"Aa," Sasuke yawned and nodded, noticing Kakashi watching him somewhat amusedly from behind his desk. "Mmkay."

"I went to go see if Sakura-chan wanted to come too, but they said she was late to work. Weird, huh? She's never late." Naruto chattered away, his usual sunny smile beaming across his face.

"Hn."

Sakura...She was surely at the hospital by now. Sakura...

"Uh. Sasuke, are you okay? Are you sick?" Naruto looked at him quizzically. "Did you finally decide to give up and just accept that I'm the better ninja or something?"

The Uchiha slowly shook his head no, "So we're going to go eat?"

He was pretty hungry now, so a bowl of ramen sounded really good.

"Kakashi-sensei! Isn't Sasuke acting weird?!" Naruto pointed his finger accusingly at his lifelong rival, stepping away from him dramatically.

"He does seem oddly agreeable and pleasant this morning, doesn't he?" Kakashi acknowledged, his mask failing to hide the grin he was now sporting.

"Yeah, did you get a head injury or something, teme?" Naruto looked at him suspiciously, his voice raising in volume, as it typically did whenever he got himself riled up. "Maybe you should go see Sakura-chan later so she can examine you."

In all honesty, Sasuke had stopped listening halfway through Naruto talking, so he just nodded like he was listening.

"AAH!" Naruto screamed. "See?! There! That! What's wrong with him?!"

"Hm…I think he might have already seen Sakura this morning," Kakashi chuckled.

"Why would he have seen Sakura-chan? She was obviously busy and overslept or something and-YOU AND SAKURA ARE DOING IT!" Naruto's voice was probably loud enough for the entire village to hear. "IS THAT WHY YOUR SHIRT IS ON INSIDE OUT?"

"What..?" Sasuke was torn abruptly from his idle thoughts of the weather and rosy locks of hair, and was made suddenly very aware of where the conversation had just gone. Looking down, he saw that his shirt was in fact inside out.

Sighing, he shrugged off the piece of offending clothing to put it back on correctly. "No, I—"

"OH MY GOD WHAT IS THAT?!" Naruto shrieked yet again.

Sasuke reluctantly followed the blond's gaze to his own shoulder, which was adorned with not one, but two mouth-sized reddish welts.

"You certainly don't get those kinds of marks from training," Kakashi remarked.

"Did she do that?! Wait, I don't want to know!" Naruto backpedaled, scratching his head. "Man, I hope my brain doesn't turn to complete mush like that after Hinata and I..."

"Don't worry, it already is complete mush." Sasuke retorted, annoyed that his ex-teammate had succeeded in killing his pleasant post-coital buzz. "Let's just go eat, dobe."

Turning on his heel, Sasuke exited the office promptly, his face still hot with embarassment.

Well, now they know.


End file.
